Let me be frank. Building a coaching community is a time-consuming pain in the arse.
Anyone who tells you differently is either lying or selling something. Probably both.
But if you do it right, it can be a great way to help you get coaching clients.
Sports fans have their teams to bring them together.
Music fans the bands they like.
And anti-vaxxers have a shared fragile grasp on reality.
But other than a desire to save the world, it’s not immediately apparent what coaches have in common.
There was an instant invasion when I started my Facebook group in 2016.
Sadly, it wasn’t coaches, but librarians and crickets carrying tumbleweed.
Even so, week after week, month after month, year after year, I kept at it.
Now, it has brought me more clients than most coaches get in their entire career.
It’s still my third biggest source of clients after my newsletter and SEO.
And I’m about to show you exactly how I did it and how I intend to do it again on Circle.
But make no mistake, it’s hard work.
If that scares you, become a nuclear scientist. It will be quicker.
1. Pick the right platform
There’s nothing wrong with using Instagram for your social media presence, but building a true community is tough for reasons that will become apparent.
Facebook and even Reddit are far better than Instagram and X, or even LinkedIn, for that matter, where groups appear to have died a slow, torturous, and spammy death.
I now use Circle because it doesn’t restrict reach and allows me to take payments.
But with that comes a price tag, both literally (about $100 per month) and figuratively, in terms of many people not wanting to leave their preferred social media.
I’d not advise any coach without a large and/or loyal following to use a paid platform.
Just make sure that your ideal client uses it and that you can get yourself in front of them with a community that will help them.
2. Show up
When someone posts in your community, and nobody responds, they’re almost always going to leave forever.
And so they should, because it’s like inviting somebody into your house and then turning the TV off, the lights out and fucking off to bed.
That’s why I’m in my communities multiple times per day unless I’m sick or on holiday.
And even then, I’m probably sneaking peeks between coughing and cavorting.
Also, showing up consistently isn’t just about community care.
It’s about playing their irritating algorithm game.
As a rule of thumb (LinkedIn is different) the more you show up, the more your members actually see what’s being posted.
And while I’m there, I keep the place spam-free.
Because every day some douche tries something.
But most members never see it because I’m there first, wielding my delete button like a ninja with OCD.
If all this sounds like too much work, you have two options:
- Hire someone to help you
- Get a 9-5 job
3. Add value. And then add more value.
I answer almost every genuine question I get asked.
For three reasons, I draw the line with vague questions like, “How do I get clients?” or “How do I use AI?”.
Firstly, if you want to know more about the former, I wrote an ebook on it, and you can get it for free by signing up for my newsletter.
Secondly, it just feels lazy. It’s like asking a group of chefs, ‘How do I open a restaurant?‘.
And thirdly, it would quite literally take me all day. to help one person
I don’t stop at answering questions, either.
I link to resources, highlight people who can help my members, and even invite my competitors to talk with them in the free Circle community.
Every time someone gains value from one of my groups, I get a nice feeling (and I’m serious; I love helping people).
And they think the group is tremendous and see it/share it as a resource.
Every time you help someone in your community solve a real problem, you’re not just being nice – you’re building social proof and authority.
How splendid.
4. Create a culture and a community
There’s a football (soccer) club in East London called Millwall.
They are widely disliked for their abrasive, aggressive, and sometimes violent fans.
They even sing a song: “Nobody likes us, we don’t care.”
Because nobody does, and they don’t.
They revel in their notoriety, and it binds them together—even the ones who aren’t nuts.
Any community has things that bind it together other than the topic/theme, such as:
- Common values
- The language (lingo) they use
- Similar likes and dislikes
- The same frustrations and hopes
- Even the clothes they wear and how they look
You could take a sledgehammer to my wife’s car, set fire to her wardrobe, and steal all her money, and she’d forgive you if you told her you’d just rescued a puppy and she rescues puppies. And if that puppy was a Doberman, she’d give you my money, too.
Your community needs to stand FOR something, not just against things.
But creating a common enemy can be useful…….
5. Create an Us versus Them mentality
Just like Millwall fans rally behind their identity, the best communities are built around a shared identity—and a shared enemy.
It’s pretty difficult for me to do that because often, the common enemies that should unite coaches aren’t quantifiable or obvious.
It’s training organisations that overpromise and withhold how hard it is to become a successful coach.
It’s marketers making insane promises that are delusional at best, and downright dishonest at worst—you really cannot scale to $10k months effortlessly in 90 days.
And it’s bad coaches who are making the industry look unprofessional and undisciplined.
It’s even more challenging to create a shared sense of us vs. them because so many coaches see other coaches as competitors.
However, most coaches can create a shared sense of us versus the world, and when that is possible, you absolutely should do it.
6. Keep the momentum
A dead community is worse than no community. It will make you look like you’ve given up, or you’re dead too.
And almost nobody hires dead coaches.
You need regular events, challenges, or discussions that get people coming back.
It’s fine occasionally post fluffy questions to stimulate conversation.
People really love to tell you what the best book about rabbits is, who their favourite vegetable reminds them of, or whether they believe in mermaids.
7. You’re a host, so act like one.
Think of yourself as the pub landlord the locals expect to see welcoming them every time they walk in.
They’re probably not coming just for you, but they expect you to be there.
And they expect you to appreciate their custom.
Thank people for contributing, like their posts and welcome new members with a post that you have written, not the platform’s AI.
You don’t need to be there for hours on end looking desperate, but try to drop in several times per day.
While using a social media VA is fine, I would not suggest you make them the major contributor unless you want people to see them as the authority in the group, not you.
8. Make It Easy
The biggest problem I have with moving as many people from Facebook to Circle as I can, is that no fucker (including me) wants to sign up for yet another platform.
If my Facebook group had only a few hundred members, I couldn’t have started a Circle community the way I did because there wouldn’t have been enough people.
But even so, it has been and continues to be hard work.
Make joining your community as easy as you can.
Make contributing easy.
And make contacting you easy.
Every hurdle you erect is one that some people won’t climb over.
9. Remove the idiots
It’s good to have debates, disagreements, and banter. It’s not good to have bullying, and abuse.
I had to remove a member of the Fully Booked Coach Facebook Group this year—someone I’ve known for many years.
He was an active member, and I respected him for what he’d overcome in his life. But he couldn’t filter his antipathy toward trans people.
I have no issue with people attacking me, and I rarely delete comments or remove users for giving me a hard time.
But I do have a problem with members attacking each other.
You don’t necessarily need to go full on nuclear if things go south. You can close comments or warn people privately.
But I never give anybody more than one warning because it’s mine and the groups reputation on the line.
10. Make it worthwhile
People’s time is often more valuable than their money.
And right now, your potential community members are drowning in options for how to spend their precious hours.
Netflix has a new serial killer show.
Their kids have soccer practice.
Their TikTok addiction needs feeding.
Their bestie has the latest goss to share.
And your competitors are making them feel welcome and wanted.
So you need to make it fucking worth it.
So there you have it, the method I used and still use to build a coaching community.
As I said at the beginning, it’s hard, really hard.
But becoming a fully booked coach is really hard, so you’d better get used to it.